A FARM favourite
Why Cork is the food centre of Ireland... it’s all about the locals
WHAT is it about a staycation that makes you think, ‘Yes, that was a great trip’? Is it the hotel room? The food? The amazing service? Or is it the idea of escaping to somewhere remote and beautiful so you can let all your worries melt away?
I contemplated all of this as I made the long drive down to West Cork on a wet and windy Friday night with my other half Paul as my co-pilot.
We were heading to the Celtic Ross Hotel in the tiny town of Rosscarbery, which is situated at the bottom of the Wild Atlantic Way.
With a Status Yellow weather warning in effect, I was hoping the long journey from Dublin to West Cork would be worth it... but in hindsight, I shouldn’t have worried.
Immediately upon arrival, I knew we were going to have a good weekend, driving into the village and witnessing the town lights twinkle on the bay, which is straight across the road from the hotel itself.
The storm had all but passed as we pulled into the hotel, a metaphor of sorts for the relaxing stay ahead of us in the beautiful West Cork region.
WHILE many Corkonians would love their beloved county to hold the ‘capital of Ireland’ status, alas, that’s not the case.
But what they can brag about is that it’s widely considered the ‘food capital’ of our island, and that’s precisely why we had come to visit this area.
West Cork is home to a legion of artisan food producers, creating everything from specialist farmhouse cheeses, organic vegetables and smoked fish, to freerange eggs, chicken, pork, beef and much, much more.
The ‘farm to fork’ concept wasn’t just embraced openly in this stunning little region of Ireland; West Cork practically invented it. And nowhere is that more evident than on the menu at the Celtic Ross Hotel.
Our weekend started on Saturday morning with a hearty Irish breakfast in the hotel, with locally sourced black and white pudding, pork sausages, bacon and organic eggs.
Little did I know that most of the produce for my breakfast came from a farm just a mere 5km down the road from the hotel.
I only came to this realisation when taking part in a tour of a West Cork Farm later in the day, visiting the home of Avril and Willie Allshire, who run a freerange outdoor pig farm and onfarm meat processing unit with their sons William and Maurice, and their five rescue dogs.
The Allshire family are neigh- bours with the Celtic Ross Hotel’s head chef Shane Deane, and he and executive chef Alex Petit use the family’s quality pork to their advantage in the hotel’s kitchen.
Each and every menu in the hotel prides itself on being locally sourced, but where this idea of ‘local’ and ‘high quality’ really shines is on the hotel’s ‘Farm to Fork’ menu.
The five-course menu prides itself on showing the best of the region, from Smoked Hake,
fished off the shores of the Atlantic, to Black Pudding Scotch Eggs from the Allshires’ farm.
Also on the menu are flavoursome delights such as Rosscarbery Free-Range Pork Belly, Double-Baked Gubbeen Cheese Soufflé and Clonakilty Baked Yoghurt.
This is a dining experience you’d expect at some of the top restaurants in Ireland and it’s this dedication to quality that helped the Celtic Ross win the title of ‘best three-star hotel in Ireland’ this year.
But it’s not just the food that the Celtic Ross keeps local; the hotel also makes sure to support local distilleries too.
On arrival at the hotel, we were given a complimentary drink by the friendly reception staff, a choice between a cream liquor called Five Farms, which, as the name suggests, is produced by five farms in the Cork region, or West Cork Whiskey.
And it doesn’t stop there; the bar also stocks local gin from Beara Distilleries.
I was lucky enough to meet the maker of Beara Gin during my stay.
Created by John Power and his wife Valerie, the very essence of Ireland’s south-west region has been bottled into this handcrafted small-batch spirit.
The gin is uniquely infused with wild Atlantic sea water and Ventry harbour sugar kelp, while hand-picked fuchsia – the iconic flower of West Cork – is combined with traditional gin botanicals to create a well-balanced, easydrinking gin.
LET’S just say the gin went down very well and I’m now an official fan. Our relaxing stay continued on Sunday with a lie-in followed by an hour of yoga with the very well-trained (and flexible) Fiona Ashley.
While I was acquainted with the flow of Vinyasa-style yoga, Paul was practising the art of the starfish in our hotel room. But I’m pretty sure I had a more relaxing time by the end of the hour.
Before packing up and heading home to Dublin, we enjoyed one final culinary indulgence at the hotel, testing out the brunch menu. Like each meal before, I was amazed at the higher standard of food choices available on the menu compared to most threestar hotels.
Seeking out more than the standard Eggs Benny, I ordered the Middle Eastern Brekkie, which includes local poached eggs, roasted tomatoes, feta crumble and pistachio dukkha on toasted sourdough.
The only downside is that because I live so far away from West Cork I can’t have it every weekend.
Driving away from the hotel and reflecting on the weekend, all I can say is that Rosscarbery’s Celtic Ross Hotel is well worth visiting, and I’ll certainly be back again.